Time: 1524
Duke was going nuts. Flint had been talking to him about the dance for the better part of two hours. Finally, he'd asked who Duke was going with.
"Come on, Conrad! Fess up: who's the lucky girl?"
"Sorry, Dash, but I haven't decided. Anyway, only one 'girl' has asked: Courtney."
"What?! You do realize it's probably to get Beach to come clean about being interested and get him to ask her, right? And what about Scarlett? If you don't ask her, someone else will, you know…"
"Like Shipwreck?" Duke snickered. The gunner's mate would just get shot down again if he asked.
"Yeah, or even Beach Head to make Courtney jealous and get back at you for saying yes to her."
"As if. Beach Head won't ask Courtney for the same reason he'll never ask Shana – he hates these things and couldn't be bothered to find a date."
"Actually, I heard that he already did ask Shana."
It might have simply been Flint's imagination, but the ambient temperature of the room seemed to suddenly drop to temperatures that would make Iceberg cold. Duke didn't even turn around as he asked, "He did what?"
Flint just shrugged. "Hey, it may only be a rumor. But that's what I heard."
"If you'll excuse me…" and Duke walked out the door.
Flint pulled out his communicator, set the frequency, and quietly spoke into the device.
"Rumor Seed 1 planted."
"Good. Let's hope it works."